Ramadhan fasting month is good training ground

Ramadhan fasting month is good training ground

By Santi W.E. Soekanto

The holy month of Ramadhan starts this week. Moslems will not
eat or drink from dawn to dusk for the entire month. Non-Moslems
often wonder how those observing the holy month stay healthy. The
following article looks at how fasting trains Moslem and what
spiritual benefit they get from it.

JAKARTA (JP): "Lebaran is coming, we're fasting in a happy
spirit, a whole day for adults, a half day for children," goes
the popular song by the Bimbo group. It will be heard almost
everywhere when the fasting month of Ramadhan comes.

The song conveys more than just the happiness of the
celebration at the end of the Ramadhan holiday, Lebaran or Idul
Fitri. It tells how the fasting month is a training camp and that
children should be gradually introduced to it.

This is exactly the sentiment felt by most Moslems as they
prepare to greet the holy month.

The fasting month is a training ground which, when observed
faithfully, makes us better persons, several Moslems told The
Jakarta Post.

They also see the ritual daily abstention from food, drink and
sex as a chance to advance spiritually.

In addition, they see the month as a period of "bonus giving",
where even the smallest good deed is repaid by Allah many times
over. They hope that fasting will purify them, provide them with
the opportunity to pay penitence, and make them as pure as babies
when the month is over.

According to prominent psychiatrist, Dr. Dadang Hawari,
fasting has at least three benefits.

"Psychologically, fasting trains Moslems to be more resilient
in handling stress and more patient in the face of aggravation,"
he said. "It is a time to exercise self-control... people who are
mentally healthy are able to control themselves."

Socially, fasting sharpens Moslems' awareness of other people
suffering.

"We are taught that nobody can be considered a man of faith if
he can sleep while his neighbor is hungry. Fasting sensitizes us
to other people's hunger," he said.

In addition, Islam teaches its believers to give more during
the month. The alms and other forms of donations they give to the
poor not only controls social jealousy, Dadang said, but also
ensures that no Moslem will go hungry during Idul Fitri.

Finally, fasting helps Moslems advance spiritually.

"If you fast until the end of Ramadhan, you hope that Allah
will reward you with forgiveness for your past and future sins.
This give you a sense of relief," he said. "The feeling that
Allah forgives us is an immense spiritual feeling."

Psychologist Ida Poernomo Sigit Sidi also saw Ramadhan as a
chance to strive for "psychological liberation".

"The feeling of being forgiven our past sins motivates us to
be even better in the future," she said.

She said the most important thing in observing Ramadhan,
especially for the busy people in cities like Jakarta, is to
gradually loosen the "busy trap" and enter the "calm sanctuary"
offered by the act of fasting.

"There are people who just go through the motions," she said.
"They fast, but their minds are not in it. They don't catch the
essence of Ramadhan because they are trapped into daily
routines."

She said the month is actually a good time to take a breather
and consolidate oneself by paying more attention to other ibadah
(worship), such as the evening tharawih prayers and reading the
holy Koran.

"Which is why I hope that I won't get invited to too many fast
breaking dinners. I hope more Moslems will devote more of their
time this Ramadhan to their families," she pleaded.

Most of the people that the Post interviewed agreed that they
saw no reason for their productivity to decline during the fast.

"If anything, fasting motivates me to work harder and be more
productive," Wisnu Pramudya, a Moslem youth activist and reporter
for Sahid Moslem magazine, said. "I learn from history, that it
was during the holy month that Prophet Muhammad performed many of
his great achievements."

Wisnu said that during the Badar and Khandaq wars in 630 AD,
Prophet Muhammad led a small number of Moslem troops to defeat a
larger number Quraish tribe soldiers.

It was also during Ramadhan that Prophet Muhammad returned
victoriously, without even taking his sword out of its sheath, to
the city of Mecca which once betrayed and chased him away, he
said.

"Moslems must understand that Ramadhan is not an excuse to
slacken our work habits," Wisnu said.